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Thursday, 20 December 2012

Well at last I have realised that Christmas planning and preparation need to take over from my brushes and so I send you Seasons Greetings for a wonderful celebration and a safe and happy time.
I thank you for taking the time to follow my art journey this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my paintings, writing my blog posts and receiving your lovely feedback. I look forward to even more exciting challenges in 2013

Monday, 17 December 2012

I keep thinking that as Christmas Day draws near and there is all that getting ready - you know house cleaning, cooking, getting in the spirit that I really ought to be putting my brushes down and focus. I am not ready yet as I awake each morning so full of ideas for subjects and ways I would like to experiment and create so I guess I will push on this week until I have a real deadline and then maybe I will stop painting.As I have mentioned before I really prefer to work from real life and next best to is use my own photos as then I have a good connection with my subject but sometimes I am really inspired by photos of others. There is a site called Paint My Photo and it is here that talented photographers share their photos for artists to paint. I have been a member ever since I took up painting again and I frequently visit the site not just for reference photos but to also enjoy seeing artwork produced from them. Today I share two paintings completed two different ways using one inspirational photograph I recently spotted on PMP - thanks Carla for your great Green Tree Frog shot

"Being Green" is the first painting I did. If this had been my reference photo I would have known what plant he was sitting on but as I didn't I followed the photo and at the end felt as if I had been a bit stifled and tight in my result."Seeing Green" is my second attempt and I approached it in a more carefree manner and made him sit on a branch. I also incorporated a salt texture for the background foilage that had pleased me when I experimented trying several different salts and various pigments.I have had some very mixed results this past year using table salt so this week I tried rock salt, salt flakes and lastly and for me the conclusive winner "Murray River Gourmet Salt Flakes". They are a pinky colour and besides the fact that I live on the river Murray what I love most is they say by using this salt you are also improving the environment and assisting with Australia's serious inland salinity problem. No matter that they cost heaps more than regular salt if they work I will pay!

Monday, 10 December 2012

The Poppy - Lest We Forget a significant remembrance flowerand for me this year a constant reminder of happiness in my life

Poppies 1994

I have always been fond of Poppies and when I first dabbled in watercolour back in 1994 attending a once a week evening class, I only had about 3 or 4 paintings that seemed worthy of buying a frame. I gave painting away due to the stresses of my working career and this first Poppy painting is hanging on our family room walls with its 1994 date next to my signature and is a constant reminder of my art beginnings.

When I began painting again in earnest back in 2011 it was a Poppy and Daisy painting I did in about July that really inspired me to go down the path of loose florals and I entered it in a local art show and it was sold which gave me the confidence to carry on with this style of work.I have also been thrilled to have my "Wild About Poppies" painting featured in a literary book Blades of Wind which was launched last month and this painting too has subsequently found a new home.We are brand new to grand parenting this year (3 babies in 9 months) and my husband Ian is so proud to be a new Poppy!I may not complete much more this side of Christmas but I was really keen to finish with another Poppy piece to round off our Poppy year